Thursday, December 31, 2020

BENTSON

BENSON
1979-1986 ABC

BENTSON
MAD #216, July 1980
w: Tom Koch
a: Angelo Torres

Sitcom about butler (Robert Guillaume) who served as butler for Governor of unnamed state (James Noble).

MAD's version begins with Benson first starting the job. Chief of staff Taylor(Lewis J. Stadlen) tells him how incompetent the Governor is an he meets the Governor's daughter Katie (Missy Gold).
There's a conflict of interest, The Governor has to attend Parents' night the same night the sheik of a foreign country is visiting. Meanwhile, there are anti-nuke protesters outside the mansion (one of the protesters is Jane Fonda).

The governor confides his problems in Benson while ugly-shaming Mrs. Krause (Inga Swenson).
The Sheik is arriving and his guards are being chased by Mrs. Krause's dogs, a recurring theme on the show.
The Sheik was built up to be this vicious tyrant, but he's just a regular guy.
It turns out they don't need to host an extravaganza for the Shiek and can entertain him by bringing him to the Parent's Night. Families are the same regardless of the culture they come from, and Benson knows this coming from the series Soap.


BENTSOME
Crazy#63, June 1980
w: Murad Gumen
a: Kent Gamble

The chauffeur Raul (Rene Enriquez) has been murdered and everyone is under suspicion. The detective investigating the murder is James Earl Jones as Woody Paris from the short-lived series Paris.
The secretary Marcia(Caroline McWilliams)'s schtick is that she's always man-hungry.
While there is a murderer loose in the house and they're all suspects, they decide to find out who it really is.
After accusing each oither they find out who the real killers are. Another reference to Benson having spun off from Soap.

BENTSON
Sick #132, April 1980
w: Arnold Drake
a: Adam V. Kane (Dave Manak)

For some reason, instead of dogs, it's lions that guard the mansion.

(Morris was a cat from 9-Lives Cat Food commercials that was picky about what he ate. Cleveland Amory wrote a series of books with a detective called “The Cat”)
The Governor on Benson was the sister of Jessica Tate from Soap. That's how the two shows were connected.
The Governor wants Benson's help in helping him connect with his daughter. He has monitors in this, but not on the show.

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

UNDERNEATH THE PLANET THAT WENT APE

BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES (1970)
dir: Ted Post
James Fransiscus- Brent (Brunt)
Kim Hunter- Zira (Zora)
Maurice Evans- Dr. Zaius (Dr. Zaydius)
James Gregory- Ursus (Versus)
David Watson- Cornelius (Carnelius)

UNDERNEATH THE PLANET THAT WENT APE
MAD #157, March 1973
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Mort Drucker

From The Milking of the Planet that Went Ape. Up to then, Planet of the Apes and James Bond were the only two film franchises in existence. There had been things like Charlie Chan or Bulldog Drummond before that but not really on a big budget. MAD parodied all four (at that time) Planet of the Apes films in one seven-page article. This was their take on Beneath the Planet of the Apes. It was just these panels.
UPDATE:
UNDERNEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES
Cracked #90, January 1971
a: John Severin

Charlton Heston, star of the first one, dies right at the beginning of this one.
Nova (Linda Harrison), the woman on the horse, is mute throughout the whole film.
UPDATE 2:

BENEATH THE DIGNITY OF THE APES Blast #1, February 1971
w: Marv Wolfman
a: Berni Wrightson

All I'll say is they must have paid really well.

MAD's version didn't have Linda Harrison as Nova, which wasn't a speaking part, or Charlton Heston as Taylor.

Monday, December 28, 2020

BIN-HER

BEN-HUR (1959)
dir: William Wyler

BIN HER
Sick #1, August 1960

Sick's very first movie parody in all its glory.

BEN CASES

BEN CASEY
1961-1966 ABC


This cover had more to it. Even after the water damage you can see from the original they cut off a lot of what would have been Frankenstein's lab, and cropped out Igor for some reason.
THE BEN CASEY SHOW
Sick # 16, October 1962
artist: Bob Powell?

Sick often did their parodies under the guise of “reviews”. Which meant there was more text than the other magazines.
This Jack Davis illustration was originally in color and looks like it was meant to be a cover but they decided to abandon Igor and couldn't crop him out.
This was the original.


They did another parody a couple years later.

BEN CASES, TREE SURGEON
Sick #34, February 1965
w: Jim Atkins
a: Angelo Torres
Sick liked doing this show. Here's a part of Plan X for Next Year's TV by future MAD regular Don Edwing and Jack Sparling from #35 in March 1965
This is from an article called If TV Shows Were Written by the Ad Agencies in Sick #48, November 1966. Not sure who the artist is.
Jack Davis did a cover for another issue, #28 in May 1964. There was nothing about the show on the inside, though.
BENT CASEY
Car Toons #7, August-September 1962
A: Pete Millar
BEN CASINGS
Car Toons #13, August-September 1963 a: Wes Bennett
One of the original Dr. McDreamys had a few novelty songs made about him. Here's one of them.
UPDATE:
From Stupidity on Television in MAD #83, December 1963, by Stan Hart and Mort Drucker.
For a while, MAD had a feature called A Celebrity's Wallet. This was from #74, October 1962.